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Good morning, everybody. Glad to see you all here today. We are of course in the book of Numbers. The Book of Numbers. People say why that for have to do that. You know a little known fact about the book of Numbers it is chock full of boring facts. It is also chock full of all sorts of nuggets, and truths and blessings. If you’re willing to study it, it is not for the faint of heart. But we’re gonna we’re going to try to pull out as much as we possibly can with the help of the Lord. And to really make that easier for me dad gave me like four verses to preach on today. So appreciate that, dad. You’re dismissed. No.
Let’s pray first. Heavenly Father, we come before you in Jesus name. We thank you so much, Lord, for your grace and your mercy, for the truth of who you are, Lord. We’re so grateful and thankful that you love us father, that you consider us your treasure, Lord, and that you gave everything that you had father in order to purchase us to yourself. Father, we pray that you would help us to understand not just in our minds floor, but in our hearts, that we were bought with a price the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And because of the great cost and the great price in which we were purchased Father, we got to live our lives in a certain way, Lord, and that certain way is taught to us in your word. And so we pray that you would help us to understand the things that are written here father, not with our own understanding, Father, with the with our eyes being opened to the truth of what you’re really saying to us, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, we can’t decipher this to discern this or interpret this by ourselves. Lord, we need your help. And so we asked him pray that you do just that Lord in Jesus name we pray, Amen. We are in Numbers chapter six, and we are picking up in verse 22. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron and his sons saying, this is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. So right off the bat, this is one of those verses in portions you guys have probably all heard that blessing before. And now you know, it comes from the book of Numbers. And this is God speaking to Moses. Remember, all of this discourse that we’re that we’re having here between Jehovah God and Moses is still taking place on Mount Sinai. So so it’s easy as we go through the Scriptures. think, oh, they’re probably halfway through the wilderness by now. This is all Moses’s conversation about what happened on Mount Sinai, what took place this is Moses telling us, this is what God said, these are all the things that God spoke to me on Mount Sinai. And then after that truth is spoken after that is said, then it’s put into practice, then it’s put into action. It’s interesting to me, the focus, the concentration, by the way, she’s fine. It doesn’t bother me a single bit. I mean, everyone else is super annoyed, but it doesn’t bother me if you know I’m busting your chops. Bring the babies man. I who I love it. You should see my house half the time it is a zoo in that place, and sit it’s perfect for me. Anyway, the focus the concentration as we go through this book, is God speaking to Moses. It’s not it’s not Not all put on what the children of Israel did. But what God said, what God said. And it’s interesting, and I think it’s something that we can take with us as well. Because always the focus of our hearts of our minds of our lives should be on what God has done and what God has said, and not necessarily on what has happened, or what we’re doing, and certainly not what other people are doing. But what has God said. I think probably one of the great mistakes that people make is by focusing in on their behavior, instead of focusing and on the Lord. What does it mean to walk in the light when the scripture says walk in the light as he is in the light, and you’ll have fellowship with one another. You want a great piece of marriage counseling advice, you’re ready, all you dumb husbands, you listening walk in the light as he is in the light. And you’ll have fellowship, one with another. I’ll say that again as my headpiece falls off, walk in the light as he is in the light, and you’ll have fellowship with one another. If we’re not having fellowship with one another, if Nikki and I aren’t getting along, if we’re fighting constantly, if there’s always turmoil and roiling and wranglings between us guess what that means? It’s very simple. Somebody isn’t walking in the light. And husbands when God says that you’re the leader of your home, and that your to be to your wife as Christ is to the church, loving her and giving himself for her and washing her with the water of the word, what he’s saying to you is walk in the light as I am in the light, and you’ll have fellowship one with another. That’s how it works. My relationship with the Lord goes, so goes my relationship with my wife. If my relationship with the Lord is bad, chances are because I don’t know if you knew this about me. I have a tendency, and I stand apart from all others in this, then unless I’m really focusing on the Lord, I have a tendency to only think about myself. I apologize. And it can be quite disturbing. At times. It can be quite distracting at times, it can create quite a mess at times it can create holes in sheet rock, at times. But if I’m walking in the light, and I’m focusing on the Lord, if I’m focusing on the Lord, guess what happens? This amazing thing begins to take place. As I’m fellowshipping with him, I naturally by the power of the Holy Spirit, begin to be like him. And so if I get into a situation where my wife and I are having a disagreement because she’s wrong about something. Instead of getting angry, instead of getting upset, instead of getting into a whole thing with her, I begin to deal with my wife, the way the Lord deals with me. And the Lord’s grace and mercy is abundant and never fails. The Bible says that even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. It goes on to say the reason for that is because he cannot deny Himself. In other words, that means that God has made you in Jesus Christ, a part of his family, and denying you would be tantamount to denying himself. That’s an amazing statement. And so if we walk in the light and we’re having fellowship with the Lord, suddenly, we find ourselves able to act in a way that in our flesh, we just are not able to do it. Understand this When the Bible talks about Satan being like a roaring lion roaming around seeking someone who he might devour, you’ve all seen the National Geographic movies and shows right there Awesome. Awesome these amazing beasts, you know, that roam that roam the plains of Africa. And and and and and how they hunt and just these ferocious animals, and the lions are so particularly fascinating to me, but they’re not very nice. Right? It’s not like you know, and you to those of you cat lovers that are here. You do realize if your cat was big enough, it would eat you right? And before it he would play with you dogs are loyal cats are hypocrites. Okay? It’s difference. But you see these cats and you watch the way that they hunt, you watch the way that they work and what do they do? They seek to separate the weak from the strong. They seek to separate the young from the mature, they seek to isolate a calf or isolate a sick Whatever will the beast or whatever the case or an injured will the beast and to get it alone and to get it by itself and then all the other lions come in and devour that creature. And when the Bible talks about these things, it’s not just flippantly saying those things, it’s like listen to me. I’m making an important point to your kids. Don’t get out there isolated by yourself. You understand? That’s one of the biggest reasons we come to church on Sundays. It’s not because we have attendance quotas to meet and, and and Heaven knows we need your money, right? The reason that we gather together on Sundays is because this is all of us together, as will the beasts standing in a circle horns out. This Is Us gathering in Jesus’s name and being emboldened and being empowered by His Spirit to walk in the light. This isn’t a waste this, this is an aid station. This is a place where you’re safe. From lions, and that’s why God has called us to fellowship with one another. But even more importantly than that, God has called us to fellowship with him to have a real, deep, meaningful, intimate fellowship with God. that’s separate from your relationship with anybody else. your walk with God is not between you and God in your wife, or you and God in your husband, or you and God and your kids are you and God and anybody else, your relationship with God is between you and him. Because he loves you, each of you individually with everything that he has. And he wants a relationship with you, individually, he doesn’t need you or want you to be like anybody else. He wants to have a relationship with you. And when that relationship is strong, man oh man, there’s no stopping us. There’s no stopping us in that. And so this is the Lord talking to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, This is how I want you to bless the children of Israel. It sir It reminds me of when the disciples asked Jesus, how should we pray, remember, and Jesus gave them what we call the Lord’s Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Right. And he was giving them a model for prayer. Now this is one of the funny and interesting things when I played football for Henniker every time before we went out to play the game, we would say where you would recite the Lord’s Prayer every single time we were sitting The Lord’s Prayer, because God, Heaven knows God is a Black Knights fan, right? And so we would pray the Lord’s Prayer. And and what’s fascinating about that no one probably else in the locker room understood this. But growing up with a Bible teacher, I understood it, that when Jesus Christ gave them this model for prayer, when they asked him, How do we pray, the first thing that Jesus said was, don’t pray multitudes of prayer or don’t pray in vain repetition over and over and over and over and over again. And what is the Lord’s Prayer become? vain a prayer may not necessarily vain but a prayer that is prayed over and over and over and over and over again. And what also used to it this is me before games No wonder I stunk it football. But But I’d be thinking of myself as we’re praying this prayer. We never say the part at the end For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. We only prayed the parts that was about us. It was about us. And hopefully by saying this God’s gonna let us win. And that is nothing, nothing to do with what that prayer is about. That prayer is about a personal, intimate relationship between a believer and the Lord God. And it was Jesus Christ pointing them in the in the way of a prayer model as to what they should say, and the things that should be focused on and that prayer, that’s a whole nother message. But this reminds me of that. But instead, this is God saying to Moses, this is how I want you to bless the people, Moses, there’s nothing greater that you can say, than these words to the people. And so in verse 24, The Lord bless you and keep you. And I looked that up I did a little bit of a word study on the Lord on the word blessed or blessing. The word blessed or blessing comes from the Old English word bloodstain based on the Old English word for blood. It may have originally meant to consecrate with Blood. And it was later used to translate the Latin word been a DC air, which is the root word of benediction. That’s why it’s the benediction. The Lord bless you, the Lord keep you which means to praise or to worship. Now, the Hebrew word here, Baraka means literally to kneel. And when used in this context, it indicates a relationship between man who adores God by kneeling and God who benefits men with his presence. How many times did you say the word or see the word or hear the word blessed this week? On Instagram continually, hashtag blessed. Hashtag blessed got a new boat, hashtag blessed. got a new job. Hashtag blessed Christmas was awesome. Hashtag blessed. And that word Brock has nothing to do with any event. Now it’s this is interesting. The word Blessed is also used to translate the Hebrew word broc, which means to praise, congratulate or salute. In the common vernacular, the word is used to indicate a wish of good fortune upon the one receiving the blessing. So you see how this word is twofold. The one is that deep spiritual meaning of a person kneeling before God, and God blessing that person with his presence. The other is this more earthly one, the common vernacular to indicate a wish of good fortune upon the one receiving the blessing. One blessing is of God, the other is of man. So when we tell people we are blessed, hashtag blessed right? We are either saying that we have received man’s praise and earthly fortune or that we are basking in his presence as we Kneel before His throne. And we should never conflate the two should never conflate the two. What is a blessing? What being blessed is to man is different than what it means for God. For God, it’s all about relationship. For God. It’s all about being in his presence, kneeling before him, and him being in your presence. Now, now, don’t get me wrong. I like the other side of things too. And every single day that I wake up, right, in 2020, now in the United States of America, I say, I’m blessed man, and I’m blessed. And I mean that in the earthly way. I am blessed. I mean, I have good fortune. I have been blessed in this life, to live here to live in this time to have a roof over my head and all the things that I need. I’m blessed. But what I really, really, really want and what I really, really, really desire is that that word blessing would take on that other meaning for me more than the former. That what it means when you say how you doing and I say blessed, I wouldn’t just mean dirt bikes running, still got a job, wife still lives with me. But what I would mean is, I have been in God’s presence. I’ve been on my knees in God’s presence and basking in the light of His glory and grace. And that is the truest form of the word blessing and is certainly what God is talking about when he says, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, the Lord keep you. I want to read to you from Genesis chapter 28. Genesis chapter 28, verses 10 to 15. You guys all know this portion. Jacob went out from behind Sheba and went towards her ran. So we came to a certain place and stay there all night, because the sun has set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he laid down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, you shall spread abroad to the west, and the East, to the north and the south, and in you and in your seed. All the families of the earth shall be blessed. I want to pause for a second. This is God reiterating to Jacob the promise that he had given to Abraham. This is the Abrahamic covenant that God has reciting again and again and again to Abraham, to Isaac, and now in this portion to Jacob. So this is that same blessing to you and I, this would be regard reciting over you the promises that you have in Jesus Christ, the promise of salvation, the promise of eternal life, the promise that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I’m going to come back and I’m going to receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also that’s your Abrahamic promise. For a Christian, that’s our Abraham, I promise. That’s what God is saying to Jacob here. So the first thing that he’s saying is he’s reciting that promise that Jacob do very well. And God Himself is reciting it to him. And then he says, Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go. And will bring you back to this land for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you. This is what it means the Lord keep you. May the Lord keep you in the promises that he has promised you that he will certainly fulfill. This is what that blessing means. bask in his presence. And may God keep you in that promise at all times when everything else fails, and when the walls are crumbling down and when there’s sickness, and when there’s illness or when there’s when there’s misfortune or whatever the case may be. May each one of us remember that as we sit in his presence, that he personally keeps us and he is keeping us for that day when that promise is going to be realized that he promised each one of us that if I go to repair, prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That is why it’s called the blessed hope. It keeps us in times of trouble. It keeps us in times of sorrow. And God willing, it makes us want to share it with as many people as we possibly can.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So verse, verse 25, for the Lord, make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. If the one person in the Bible that talks that repeats this phrase more than anybody else, about God’s face, about God’s face shining upon them, and you probably would guess that if I said, guess that some of you may guess, King David. He said that more than anybody else in the Bible, and I’m just going to read you a couple of couple of Psalms, Psalm 67. One may God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us. Si la, Psalm eight Three, restore us, O God and cause your face to shine upon us that we may be saved. Psalm 87 at verse seven, restore us, O God of hosts, and cause your face to shine upon us that we may be saved. Psalm 8616, turn to me and have mercy. Grant your strength to your servant, save the son of your maid servant, Psalm 119 135, that last one didn’t that face shine upon you. I don’t know where I got that one from Psalm 119 135. Make your face shine upon your servants and teach me your statutes. David had this understanding and he had this belief in his heart and he had this deep abiding desire that God’s face would always be shining upon them in order for God’s face to be shining upon you. Where do you suppose you need to be looking? And David, God says to David in the Psalms sikhi my face Seeking my face. And David said, when God said that to me, I said that to him, your face Shall I seek. I want to see the face of God, I want to bask in the presence of the light of His glory and grace, I want his face to shine upon me at all times. I want his face to shine upon me, because everything changes at that point in time when his face is shining upon me, and notice what it says here and be gracious to you. It’s the idea that when God looks at you, when God sees you, when God looks at you, individually, regardless of where you’ve been, regardless of what you’ve been through, regardless of what you’ve done, regardless of things that have happened in your life, no matter what the situation or the circumstance, when God looks at you and you allow his face to shine into your own, the only thing that you receive there is Grace is grace. God’s mercy, as he says, I love you. And I only want relationship with you. I’m not looking for you to grovel. I’m not looking for you to, to walk on crawl on broken glass. I’m not looking you to talk about what a jerk you are or to feel down, be in the dumps. I’m looking for you to look into my face and to receive my grace and to be filled with my joy. That’s what God desires. And that’s what he’s telling Moses to pray over the people. In verses 25 and 26, we have the Lord’s face or presence, and then also his countenance the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. That is his feeling towards us. His countenance would be his feeling towards us, his demeanor while present with us. So in his presence, Grace and in his heart towards us, peace, there’s a countenance mom’s. You have many different countenances, right? There’s a countenance that my wife has when I get home. That That tells me it’s been a good day with the children. Right? There’s a countenance when I get home on my wife’s face, it tells me it has not been a good day with the children. And there’s a countenance on my wife’s face that tells me whether or not she’s happy with me. Right? This idea of countenance, and you can enter into a room with somebody or into someone’s presence presence, and just their countenance tells you a story. Just the countenance of that person. The kids do it all the time to you know, what do you do Where you going? You’re gonna play for night for 16 hours straight.
Yeah, no, no, no, you’re gonna go outside and you’re going to shovel mounds and mounds of snow and rock and go change the oil in my bike and do something with yourself. I’m going to be in here eating Cheetos because I worked all week. What have you done? And their countenance changes? The enemy. The count is changes. Never, never hopping and skipping. Its hopping and skipping up to the Xbox. Never out to the shovels. Never out to the shovels. The countenance changes. Oh, oh, this is me. I suddenly I’m injured and Oh, the count is everything changed. Tell me about your life suck Bo. is poor child, somebody take him somewhere. But when it’s happy time, when it’s happy time, they won’t shut up, and they won’t stop bouncing off of the walls, right? I mean, there’s there’s just joy that’s bound up in a heart of a child and folly to the Bible says, and the Bible tells us how to get rid of that. You know what I mean? But it’s bound up and you can see it, it’s evidence exuberant. Right, there’s a countenance that’s there. Well, the what God says about his countenance, the Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. When you go home at night, ladies and gentlemen, if your house is a place of peace, then guess how you feel? peaceful? Okay? And if it’s not, it’s the opposite who’s clapping? And if it’s not, and we’ve all been there, we’ve all been there when things aren’t going well, right? And as soon as you walk in the house, it’s like saying things, the countenance everything is different. God says this, when you sit in my president’s presence, and when you observe my countenance towards you, it’s got one effect and one effect only. Peace. Peace. You have peace with God. You have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished for you. We’re going to do communion in a minute. And we’re going to celebrate what Jesus Christ has done for us. Because because of the fact that he did that, we have peace with God. All debts have been paid, all the charges have been dropped, you are acquitted, you are exonerated, you are forgiven, you are cleansed. You are clean from anything that has kept you away from God because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and his countenance towards you is peace. Verse 27. So they shall put my name on the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Amen. Good have our Usher’s Come on up. That was a short one. I love that. Is that I love that stuff, man. You can’t go wrong. I love calling the ushers up too and then making them wait. That’s one of my favorite. You can’t go wrong. seeking after the presence of God. You can’t go wrong sitting in his presence. You can’t go wrong sitting in his word. You can’t go wrong, getting in prayer with him. You can’t go wrong, because there’s never going to be a time when you enter into His presence. And he goes, Oh, and one more thing I forgot. There’s never going to be a time. You know, you’ve really, Richard. I mean, really, never. Never. When you enter into God’s presence, he has one purpose for your little lives. He has one purpose, to love you. To allow you to sit there and bask in his glory. And to share it because you’re part of the family and to keep you in and to be present with you and allow you to look in his face and his countenance there and to give you, peace, peace. Always the greeting of Paul to the churches. Grace be to you, and peace, through God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to You, and peace, Grace to You, and peace. What is Paul saying, when he says that to the church, may you be ever in his presence? May you ever be basking in the glory of His love as you kneel before him? And may you experience all of the beauty and the hope and the peace and the joy that goes along with being with him? with him? And so Jesus Christ on the night that he was betrayed, and he was gathered there for the Passover Feast With his disciples, and he changed everything. They’d had this meal every single year for their entire lives. They’ve done the Passover. And now this Passover, Jesus changes everything around and begins to explain to them that the same way that I have a relationship with God the Father, because I’m his son, you’re going to have a relationship with Him as well, because you’re my disciples. And here’s the way that that’s going to happen. And this is the way in which that’s going to be made. This is my body. And it’s going to be broken for you. And this is my blood, which is going to be shed for you. It’s the blood of a new covenant, not just simply the covenant of laws and rules and regulations and blood on the doorpost. But instead of blood that by belief in me is going to be put on the doorpost of your heart. So that wherever you You go and wherever you find yourself, you find yourself free from the constraints of sin and death. That’s the blood of the new covenant. And it’s not determined by our perfect behavior. And it’s not determined by our church attendance or the body be in big trouble, right? Yeah. It’s not the term by any of that. It’s determined by what he did, by what he did. And his desire is to share it with you and I. That’s what this is. This is a meal with Jesus. He then goes on to personally direct his disciples that when you’re gathered together, and you do this again, and again and again, when you do this when you share the same meal after I’m gone, and you’re gathered together, do it in remembrance of me. Remember, remember this night Remember the things that I’m saying to you and that it’s not just for tonight, but it’s for every day hereafter. And every time you share this meal together, remember, I’m making the way for you. Amen. All right.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai